I'm New and I'm Motivated

Training Beginners
1

After reading many articles and board discussions I’ve finally registered. I’m 6’ and currently 170 lbs. I’ve always been skinny and into swimming and riding bikes. I want to get faster in the pool and on my bike so I need to improve the motor. In the past I’ve done some weight training but I was doing so much cardio that I wasn’t seeing any noticeable gains in size.

Four months ago I weighed 155. I cut out cardo almost entirely and concentrated on weights and I gained 15 lbs. Funny how that works. I don’t yet know how far I want to go with this, how big I want to get, etc. A while back I thought it’d be awesome to just weigh 170 and be “normal.” But after getting there so easily, and I know gains won’t stay easy, I like how this is going and I want to keep going.

I’m in the Navy which poses some challenges. First, the gym on my ship is somewhat lacking. We don’t have a power rack but we do have a smith machine. I use it for squats, deadlifts, and bench press. We just got a new adjustable bench but the smith machine is much safer to use since the ship rocks a bit. We have a pullup bar and assisted pullup/dip machine that you can adjust to do non-assisted dips on. We have machines for leg curls, leg extension, sitting row/lat pulldown, leg press, abdominals, a sitting fly/press machine, and a single universal cable machine. We have a handfull of steppers, bikes, treadmills, and elipticals also.

I’ve learned to improvise, adapt, and overcome on the gym side. The part that I’m puzzled over is maintaining a proper diet while underway. We don’t exactly get good quality food. There’s no brown rice or whole wheat anything and often we only have good milk for a few days at a time. Is there a protein powder that doesn’t taste like paint thinner when mixed with only water?

I’ve been reading all the articles recommended for beginners and I’ve even built a slosh tube. I’m learning to do deadlifts and front squats, which I’ve never done before. Those are a blast. I’m the only person on the ship I know of who does either of those, or pullups for that matter. Most people I see in the gym so some variation of curls.

So in conclusion, I just wanted to introduce myself and let you all know how excited I am to have found this site.
Thanks.

2

[quote]Vandal wrote:
After reading many articles and board discussions I’ve finally registered. I’m 6’ and currently 170 lbs. I’ve always been skinny and into swimming and riding bikes. I want to get faster in the pool and on my bike so I need to improve the motor. In the past I’ve done some weight training but I was doing so much cardio that I wasn’t seeing any noticeable gains in size.

Four months ago I weighed 155. I cut out cardo almost entirely and concentrated on weights and I gained 15 lbs. Funny how that works. I don’t yet know how far I want to go with this, how big I want to get, etc. A while back I thought it’d be awesome to just weigh 170 and be “normal.” But after getting there so easily, and I know gains won’t stay easy, I like how this is going and I want to keep going.

I’m in the Navy which poses some challenges. First, the gym on my ship is somewhat lacking. We don’t have a power rack but we do have a smith machine. I use it for squats, deadlifts, and bench press. We just got a new adjustable bench but the smith machine is much safer to use since the ship rocks a bit. We have a pullup bar and assisted pullup/dip machine that you can adjust to do non-assisted dips on. We have machines for leg curls, leg extension, sitting row/lat pulldown, leg press, abdominals, a sitting fly/press machine, and a single universal cable machine. We have a handfull of steppers, bikes, treadmills, and elipticals also.

I’ve learned to improvise, adapt, and overcome on the gym side. The part that I’m puzzled over is maintaining a proper diet while underway. We don’t exactly get good quality food. There’s no brown rice or whole wheat anything and often we only have good milk for a few days at a time. Is there a protein powder that doesn’t taste like paint thinner when mixed with only water?

I’ve been reading all the articles recommended for beginners and I’ve even built a slosh tube. I’m learning to do deadlifts and front squats, which I’ve never done before. Those are a blast. I’m the only person on the ship I know of who does either of those, or pullups for that matter. Most people I see in the gym so some variation of curls.

So in conclusion, I just wanted to introduce myself and let you all know how excited I am to have found this site.
Thanks.
[/quote]

If your worried about safety do clean grip front squats, that way you can ditch the bar easilly if you start rocking.

3

Stay excited.
Low-Carb Metabolic Drive, Chocolate is literally the best tasting protein I have ever had. The strawberry tastes like strawberry from any other brand I have had.

4

Fellow tall guy! the gains will be hard and the results will be hardly visible! but don’t give up. I recommend ON Whey. But Biotest offers more bang for your buck.

5

Go with zephead on the front squats and yasser on the Metabolic Drive. And like yasser said “stay excited.” Kudos on actually reading the stickies before posting. They are chalk full of very useful info.

6

I didn’t know 6’ was considered tall. Congrats on finding this site and staying consistent in less than ideal circumstances. It looks like you have all the right equipment. As far as diet, eat whatever they have. It’s nice to have the best nutrition, but ultimately your body will use the fuel efficiently. At 170, I can’t imagine your goal is to lose weight. So eat as much as you can throughout the day.

Kudos on doing front squats and deadlifts.

7

Doing squats on a rocking ship? You sir are hardcore.
Being tall just means we will look like a greek god when reaching out genetic potential.

8

True. I think tall people look better muscular. They have more room to put the bulk where as short people (like me) have to crowd it into small spaces.

9

I used to think I was tall (I think the avg. height in this country is 5-9 or so). My opinion changed when I started visiting college campuses after I graduated. I think tall is now 6-4+. I’m the shortest and smallest of closest circle of friends here. It took some getting used to.
We also have a decent selection of DB’s and a couple curl bars. Lifting free weights while the ship is rocking probably engages more stabilizer muscles. Maybe I’m getting more bang for my buck.

10

My triceps are no were near as impressive as my 5’10 counterpart. Possibly due to genetics but I’m gonna blame it on being tall.